Weaver tried to discredit girl, teacher says

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, September 8, 2002

OREGON CITY, Ore. -- A man suspected of killing two neighborhood girls waged a campaign to discredit one when she accused him of sexual abuse four months before her disappearance, said the girl's teacher.

Ward Weaver mocked 12-year-old Ashley Pond in front of her friends -- including his own daughter -- and called her a liar, the teacher said.

Weaver also threatened to discredit Ashley if he was called as a witness at the trial of her father, Wesley Roettger Jr., who was charged with raping her for four years, the girl's teacher told The Oregonian.

At the same time, according to court documents and interviews, Ashley made similar allegations against two other men, then denied them.

Those events damaged Ashley's credibility, nearly destroyed the case against Roettger -- who eventually pleaded no contest to one count of attempted unlawful sexual penetration and was sentenced to probation -- and deflected attention from her allegations against Weaver.

Those allegations were not investigated, despite three separate reports of abuse to child protective workers because welfare workers faxed the information to the wrong police agency.

The bodies of Ashley and her classmate, 13-year-old Miranda Gaddis, were found Aug. 24 and 25 in the back yard of Weaver's rental house.

Weaver was arrested Aug. 13 after being accused of raping his son's girlfriend and remains in jail. Weaver, 39, has not been charged in Ashley's and Miranda's deaths, but prosecutors have said they will seek an indictment against him.

Linda Virden, who taught Ashley in elementary school and served as her mentor, said Saturday that Weaver tormented the girl after she accused him of sexually abusing her.

Virden said Ashley told her that Weaver threatened to testify that Roettger was a good man and to call Ashley a liar in court.